The Colombian priest Gonzalo Arboleda who works as a pastor in the capital Bethlehem denounces the Palestinian region where the population is also experiencing the consequences of the war since October 2023.
Gaza has been controlled since 2007 by the terrorist group Hamas, on which Israel has declared war; in contrast, the government in the West Bank is run by the Palestinian National Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas.
“The conflict has had a great influence on the population in Bethlehem,” with psychological, social, economic and spiritual consequences, the priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE) explained. He spoke to a Spanish Newspaper during a visit he made to Colombia a few days ago at the invitation of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
Father Arboleda, who has lived in Bethlehem for a year and a half, said that “what is happening in Gaza affects everyone psychologically. People are anxious, stressed, sad (…). People do not want to have weddings because when you have a wedding you have to celebrate, and you cannot celebrate with what is happening.”
An example occurred at Christmas 2023 when the civil authorities of Bethlehem decided to cancel the festivities, so everything was referred to the liturgical celebrations inside the temples.
“There is a lot of solidarity among the Palestinian people, they are very supportive. When a catastrophe happens in a certain place, everyone mourns,” explains Father Arboleda.
According to the US State Department’s 2023 Religious Freedom Report, the West Bank is home to some three million people, including 50,000 Palestinian Christians.
However, Father Arboleda explains that because of the war “these permits were cancelled” and now these Palestinians have become unemployed, with the personal and family consequences that this brings.
Furthermore, tourism in the Holy Land has come to a standstill – with empty hotels and halls – affecting the entire population, regardless of creed.
“And the last thing I can say is this: that since the war, the very security of the people in Palestine has been affected. Any news outlet would say that there have been more deaths in Palestine, in the West Bank, since the war began,” said the 31-year-old priest.
Father Gonzalo Arboleda, whose work focuses on the Hogar Niño Dios and which cares for children with disabilities — Christians and Muslims — also helps in the parish of a town near Bethlehem, which has allowed him to get to know “some realities as well.”
He shared that many people tell him that they feel “soul tired,” a very typical Arabic expression. “That means I feel desperate, I feel like we are in a situation that will never improve and will never heal completely,” he explained.
This is because, “even if the war ends, what happens next? Then there is the construction of Gaza, then there are all the consequences of what we have seen, and what we have experienced. That will not go away, that will not disappear.”
The priest pointed out that “the spiritual life of Christians has also been affected. In some ways, some people go to Mass more now because of the situation, because they say ‘we have to get closer to God’.”
However, “there are people who, on the contrary, go to Mass less because they ask themselves ‘where is God? And why is this happening to us again?’ Then they get angry with God.”
“Helping people have a vision of faith”
Given this situation, the IVE priest pointed out that it is necessary to “help people to have a vision of faith” because, “first of all, human hopes are few.”
“And the vision of faith, what does it show us? What does it teach us? That this life has only one purpose and that is to reach heaven. And reaching heaven can be done in any human condition. In poverty, in wealth, in sickness, in health, in peace, in war,” he recalled.
The Colombian priest added that achieving eternal life “cannot be limited by any external condition. Reaching heaven is something that I can, with the grace of God, seek and achieve through my personal decisions and actions.”
He explained that the suffering brought by war can help people “to take that perspective of faith and to begin to live life as a path to heaven,” because while human projects and desires can be good, they are not the main thing.
“So, these people who have been so limited in human terms, now have the door opened in some way to seek the divine, which is eternal life. That is really the only hope that can be given, because it is the only true, real hope that is not lost despite all the external and material conditions in which I find myself,” he concluded.